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7. Existence / E. Categories / 1. Categories

[general ideas about how to group what exists]

21 ideas
There are two sorts of category - referring to things, and to circumstances of things [Boethius]
Categories are general concepts of objects, which determine the way in which they are experienced [Kant]
Categories are necessary, so can't be implanted in us to agree with natural laws [Kant]
Even simple propositions about sensations are filled with categories [Hegel]
Thought about particulars is done entirely through categories [Hegel]
No need for a priori categories, since sufficient reason shows the interrelations [Schopenhauer, by Lewis,PB]
In formal terms, a category is the range of some style of variables [Quine]
Categories can't overlap; they are either disjoint, or inclusive [Sommers, by Westerhoff]
The category of Venus is not 'object', or even 'planet', but a particular class of good-sized object [Jubien]
All descriptive language is classificatory [Dupré]
Ontological categories are not natural kinds: the latter can only be distinguished using the former [Lowe]
Categories are base-sets which are used to construct states of affairs [Westerhoff]
How far down before we are too specialised to have a category? [Westerhoff]
Maybe objects in the same category have the same criteria of identity [Westerhoff]
Categories can be ordered by both containment and generality [Westerhoff]
Categories are held to explain why some substitutions give falsehood, and others meaninglessness [Westerhoff]
Categories systematize our intuitions about generality, substitutability, and identity [Westerhoff]
Categories as generalities don't give a criterion for a low-level cut-off point [Westerhoff]
Monothetic categories have fixed defining features, and polythetic categories do not [Ellen]
In symbolic classification, the categories are linked to rules [Ellen]
Do categories store causal knowledge, or typical properties, or knowledge of individuals? [Machery]